Ivan Kinov

Ivan Atanasov Kinov (8 May 1893-2 January 1967) was Chief-of-Staff of the Bulgarian Army from 15 December 1944 to 10 December 1949, succeeding Raycho Slavkov and preceding Assen Grekov.

Biography
Ivan Kinov was born on 8 May 1893 in Lyutibrod, Bulgaria. Kinov served in the Second Balkan War in 1912-1913, World War I, and in the 1923 September Uprising. Kinov moved to Yugoslavia for one year, but in 1924 he returned to Bulgaria and graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union. During World War II, Kinov led Bulgarian troops against the USSR during the Eastern Front, but he was appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Bulgarian Army on 15 December 1944 after Bulgaria realigned with the Allied Powers and led the Bulgarian armies against Nazi Germany. After the war, he entered politics, serving as ambassador to Romania from 1960 to 1963 and being a member of the central committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He died in 1967.